nexos.ai raised two rounds in its first year: Justas Morkūnas, COO at nexos.ai

0:00Justas Morkūnas:Hello and welcome back to the Scaling Europe show presented by Deal. I'm Seb Johnson. Today I'm here with Justice of Nexus AI. Thank you for joining me. How are you doing today? Hello Seb. Thanks for having me. Really happy to be here. Calling out from cold but very sunny Vilnius. Yeah, how is it? It's extremely cold this year. We are not used to that. But despite that, tons of sun. So at least, you know, a bit more brighter environment here. But when you focus for work, you know, it's perfect. Amazing, I've been to Vilnius, it's a lovely place. But for those who don't know about Nexus AI, can you tell me a bit about what you do?

0:35Justas Morkūnas:Give me the quick pitch. Of course. So we are Nexus AI, so we are now Code Agent Builder. So it doesn't matter if you want to build the custom agent or you want to use the pre-built ones, we are the ones that give a possibility to do that, to automate your daily tasks. And you would say, is it another one, Agent Builder? But just by heart, we're really into security just because of our background of the Nord security. So we do that by design. Actually, we didn't start from that. But, you know, maybe later on we can touch the whole journey about our story. And why are you betting big on the security as an issue?

1:15Justas Morkūnas:What risks do you see in this space that people might fall into? So maybe let me guide, you know, through the whole story. Then we started Nexus. First of all, we saw the biggest issue, not security, not AI adoption. In general, you know, within the Tessonet group, we have thousands of employees working on the different products. And Nexus is part of the Tessonet. We saw that it's just messy all around the place. People are using, you know, different tools. It's extremely difficult to control and understand in general where you are with the AI adoption. And that's why in the beginning we thought that the AI gateway is the main thing to go.

1:52You know, then we started building. we attracted a bit of the money later on we clearly clearly realized that you know we're missing technical people within the customer so they can build on our gateway so that's why we launched the workspace just with a lot of security in mind because at that time people are already tried different tools but they're worried about the security the latest kind of development stage we realized that you have to control as well ai adoption lag because it doesn't matter if you do the best gateway, amazing security. If you're not controlling that people are consuming AI in general, you have to be on that leg.

2:32So, you know, the latest focus, we claim, you know, that we are no code AI builder tool.

2:38Justas Morkūnas:Amazing. And how are things going so far? I know you raised a big round, Index Ventures and Advancing Capital. How is that? How have things been since then? Depends on your expectations. You know, we are in the environment where we're shipping every day. we have different products as sale like Hostinger and others and and we are capable to build tools from day one in few years hundreds of millions so you know it really depends on your expectation but we're really enjoying the the ride so as you mentioned you know we did the pre-seed a year ago then during the summer we raised additional capital just to boost our development we're seeing momentum in the market.

3:19I believe all the AI builders, they see from the different angles, you know, how the market is developing. But that now we're already 100 people within the Nexus, you know, enjoying the ride and receiving tons of the feedback from the customers as well as from internal network that we have, which really helps to build, you know, you know, the product.

3:44Justas Morkūnas:Amazing. And, you know, you raise, yeah, the seed round at the beginning of last year and then the Series A not long after. I guess like what enabled you to raise, you know, two big rounds from amazing VCs in the space of a very short, yeah, in a very short space of time? I believe I have to be open, you know. We have a test on that background behind us. We have Tom, we have Amos, who are extremely successful business owners and this is not their first gig as well as the whole team, the founding team. We're not doing this not for the first time. So I believe for the VCs, it was extremely easy decision.

4:20You have a TeslaNet background, extremely successful businesses. You have AI as the field, good team and cool idea. So they were very welcome to join us in our journey. And then we started building very quickly. We said, we are feeling the product market fit. The problem that we were pushing to the market, it resonates. with our partners, you know, we talked with the top banks at that time, you know, startups, different communities, and everybody would say, you know, I really need that. We would even push the sentence saying, you know, please convince us not to do that and not continue the journey that we're already in.

5:02And, you know, nobody managed to do that. So that's why, you know, together on the Series A round, it was led by the Atlantic Capital, Matt Miller, that we knew already for a while together with the index. They really said, we want to join, you know, your mission. Let's do that together. So we thought, you know, if there's a good company to do that together, let's do it. Let's push it.

5:25Justas Morkūnas:Amazing. What do you think you need to do to get to that next big round? You know, the next milestone of your growth? You know, then you are finishing the series A and then leaning towards series B. It's all about the numbers. It's not anymore about the idea and the first traction you have to show, you know what is the real value that you are delivering into the market and especially nowadays it's like i don't know somehow we have the feeling that all of us who are building different ai tools coming from the different corners but in the end we're solving the same issue you know proving that the ai adoption is is there so through the different partnerships as well as the product maturity recently we launched you know a newly built agent library for our customers we're seeing more and more traction if that inflection point you know is picking up we'd be happy you know to continue the journey what is important to mention that we're really not chasing the the money it's more you know how much value we deliver and ourselves you know how much do we believe in the idea and the next stage of the company that for sure all of us were here you know just just for that instead of just you know announcing being bounced and and that's it yeah Yeah, of course.

6:39Justas Morkūnas:What do you want to achieve this year? You've come into this year with a lot of tailwinds, with a lot of cash in the bank, a lot of momentum. What do you want to achieve in 2026? The game goal, of course, is like even for us is crystallization. Being in such network and environment, you can really get caught up with the different new ideas and switch your focus. Now we feel that we got, you know, where we want to focus, you know, on SMB market, enabling, you know, the power generalist within the companies limiting, you know, just closing all the limitations that they have. And through this year, of course, it's still a lot about the product maturity and the offering.

7:18Our aim goal is really to create the platform where from prompt to outcome, you get the final result. I feel that in the market we talk so much about the skills, workflows, all the different fancy things. And everybody, people that are really using the tools, they care just about the outcome. So if we talk towards the end of the year together with you, I would really like to show the platform where you just prompt and we guide you to the best results without you knowing what is behind and what is under the hood.

7:51Justas Morkūnas:And you must work with a lot of different customers who are very keen to get as much value from AI as they possibly can. When you're working with these different clients, these different customers, or when you're pitching to people, I know that you're starting a commercial role. What are you seeing among the most successful teams and companies? What is the trait that is unifying the fastest adopters of AI, the companies that are getting the most value from it? I believe it's just attitudes. you know because in the beginning then all the ai journey started it was a huge formal you know all this e-level doesn't matter if you are just an individual contributor or manager you would go for that and try to build something very quickly you know expectations was really kind of were boosted so high that we got kind of a big disappointed from the market so what is the value now people started to feel the value such cases as open claw and all others showed how powerful it can be of course with all the limitations if you want to put that into real kind of thing to work but a lot of companies they start doing something they try it they say it doesn't work some of the companies they just buy the tool and drop it they switch it to another one you need attitude and the commitment because even in our case looking to the whole organization as well different companies within the tesonet as nexus we never worked so hard as we do now everybody promised that land that you know then the ai comes in it will be so easy that you just sit and enjoy the journey it's extremely kind of intense moment for us and the companies that really commit and they say this is not just a try out or poc but let's do that you know from the ground zero till we reach the outcome, investing our time, investing, you know, resources to train our employees and stuff, then it really works and they really reap the benefit, you know, out from the AI.

9:48Justas Morkūnas:Do you think things like OpenClaw are going to have a real tangible impact on a business like yours? Because now all of a sudden using agents, seeing a lot of value from AI has had quite a big moment. It's become accessible to everybody, everybody sort of realizing the value that can be unlocked by automation's agents. Do you think that's going to have an impact on the business? You know, of course, even if we are talking from the perspective expectations, you know, everybody saw how powerful the AI can be. So naturally, it raises the bar for the companies as us, where we're saying that we will be able to deliver the same outcome just in the secure way with the more guided kind of version and do that.

10:29But despite that, OpenClaw is a very difficult and technical solution, which for the regular users, sometimes being in that AI bubble, meaning that you are just reading the news about AI living through the technology, it seems that everybody is aware about that. But we tend to say, let's ask my mom or sister how she sees the same perspective. And if you would ask, you know, someone from that perspective to deploy the open claw, it would be extremely difficult. But despite that, you know, we want to as well enable people and for the secure environments to test something. So, for example, just Friday, we launched the partnerships at the Hostinger where on their VPS, people can deploy very kind of in the guided way different tools and enjoy as well Nexus experience where we're supporting that.

11:22So it raises the expectations, but there's the security, there's the kind of productivity, and you somehow need to meet in the middle.

11:34Justas Morkūnas:Yeah, super interesting. I've seen that you're just in the process of launching a whole new suite of AI agents to kind of power generalists, right? Yeah. Why was that the thing that you wanted to build and roll out? you know i i as i mentioned in the beginning i believe in the end you want to control the end user kind of really deliver the value to it because if you read some big papers from the gardener and others you would see let's take a pilot within more traditional businesses the licensing and you know the the the purchases of it is just going you know out of the roof but the people barely use that so you know we wanted to control the last kind of stop to deliver the value and really to limit all the bottlenecks for the regular employees you know the way how they deal with the it tickets to get new tools how they reach the productivity and really focus on them so we're launching you know agents and then library with that just because as well we don't believe anymore in the idea that everybody would be so open to code it doesn't matter vibe code or do different things, things build themselves, you have to guide them to reach the results.

12:47So that's why, you know, we're so heavily focusing because we believe this is the only way to control the whole kind of journey and then help to reach the final outcome.

12:58Justas Morkūnas:And the launch that you're undergoing now to kind of push out these generalizations, have you been trialing this with a subset of customers initially? How's that been? Have you been testing it, refining it over time before you do this big hard launch? Of course, of course, we utilize our community, what we already have as well. We have a huge luxury having more security in the next building, like close to 2000 employees using our tools, sharing the feedback. You can just imagine being them really from the tech environment. Their expectations are high and they are pushing all the time. You know, what's new, how we will deliver that and this.

13:32Hostinger, same story. So we attest heavily on that. You know, we believe what we should bet and then we go. Of course, you have to move extremely fast. So we try to optimize the process in general, you know, shipping into the market because, you know, it's crazy just in one day how many things happen within the AI industry.

13:51Justas Morkūnas:And how is, you know, the Nord history, the background, you know, so much of the career of the founding team was spelled at Nord. How has that impacted the way that you're building Nexus today? So, you know, I believe as well talking about the luxury, the only one I believe that we have in such competitive environment, we know each other for a while. You know, we worked with Tom Amis with, you know, our CTO and CPO, Rasa from marketing for the long, long time. So we know each other. So when we kind of decided to do this idea, Tom just dropped the message from the Slack. Hey, guys, I have a new idea.

14:32Let's chat. So at that time we had the workation coming for the North security because at that time were all of us working for the North security. We said let's do after workation because if we start we are not flying anywhere we will build something. So after we came back we just kind of assembled the team. Tom used to call us the special ops team from the different kind of fields. Top talent in one room delivering you know the ideas and the products. So then you know you know each other. It's a big luxury, you know, with the team just to follow the path, listen to the customers, look to the market and then deliver, you know, the final product.

15:11So we're enjoying the journey and, you know, the whole team as well as Tom Amis, they're relentless. We are pushing to the limits, even being where we are with the other products. And it's really, really exciting.

15:24Justas Morkūnas:And what's it like building in Vilnius? Amazing. You know, I believe you have to come again. I don't know when was the last time you were here, but you have to come. We have a nice, beautiful cyber city here. A lot of different tech companies. I'm enjoying finally recruiting people from the different countries. And they are coming to Vilnius to work with us. Just because we have that crazy environment. You really feel that other cities, they are trying to reinvent themselves, kind of do something else. We're really living through the transformation. So, you know, new ideas, new products, new companies, new city.

16:05It's really kind of evolving. We have Vinted across the street, all other nice startups here. So really, it's really vivid experience for us.

16:14Justas Morkūnas:And are you able to source great talent locally? I mean, Vilnius does have that history of, like you say, Vinted and Nordby. You do have these amazing tech companies that have come out of a really relatively small city or relatively small region. do you find that you have this density of tech talent or are you always having to look further afield to try and bring people in it's it's never you know been easy with the talent i used to work a long time ago for the you know bigger corporations so talent is always a big problem doesn't matter if you're in paris london or vilnius so in this case we need to juggle kind of and make sure that we as well taking care of the whole environment and ecosystem meaning you know helping to grow for the young talents, taking, you know, the ones that are just starting their journey.

16:58But that is at the same time, we are kind of open. We have an office in Warsaw, a bit in the Berlin. So, you know, we have spread it all around the place. Then you need the top talent. You look what you have here in Vilnius. If now, you know, we find the best people in the market and we move forward.

17:17Justas Morkūnas:Amazing. And like I mentioned before, you're working with a range of amazing customers and clients already. What are the biggest use cases? You know, like I know that you help people with sales, marketing, recruitment, general productivity stuff. There's a wide range of things that people are using AI agents for. What are you seeing your customers, your clients use it for initially to go from like zero to one in terms of getting the most out of AI immediately? Is it sales? Is it marketing? Is it writing? Is it research? What are the really strong early use cases? So I believe, you know, we are not different from the market.

17:48What everybody sees, you know, really good adoption with the sales, marketing, legal and customer support. Of course, the customer support and that lag, it's really dominated by the vertical, you know, AI solutions that they're doing things. But through our gateway, we're supporting that as well. Then it coming, you know, to our agents and stuff. So really, we are focusing on the sales, marketing and HR. And it comes to the market. you can just imagine if you are smaller organization like at 10 people usually marketeers they are overwhelmed with everything from the strategy to posting on the linkedin to building some ceo campaign and etc so we are guiding through that story so we'll help you to build you know the marketing plan then you know to publish all this stuff to create the best piece of content to be there so you don't need to hire you know four or five people of course if you are in the tech industry usually people kind of go and companies through that perspective that they just hire more but as well we're working with the more traditional businesses where they don't have that luxury you know the ebitda's and stuff they are not skyrocketing and and showing really good result they need to take care of all the head counts so we help people you know to enhance their experience to replicate themselves and and do the work but you know if we would go into the detail we have a lot of tons of the use cases even the hr teams recruitment they're really saving up time you know and delivering the the final result amazing well look thank you so much

19:20Justas Morkūnas:for joining me justice it's been great chatting all your building is super interesting and i always love speaking to people about building um in outside of the big european hubs you know who aren't building in london or stockholm or paris i think it's underrated advantages to building in really focused high density area. So thank you so much for joining me and let's stay in touch. Thank you, thank you, Seb. So let's, you know, arrange a meeting and come to Vilnius. We have to show everything. Absolutely. I'm going to be doing a European tour later this year. So yeah. So I believe we're already on the list.

19:51Justas Morkūnas:So thanks, Justice. Bye bye.